As a counselor and a researcher, Stacey Litam had focused her career on helping victims of sex trafficking to work through their trauma. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and while Litam’s previous work didn’t become less important, she began seeing a growing need for trauma counseling — just about everywhere.
Litam is a clinical counselor and an assistant professor of counseling at Cleveland State University. She has studied the effects of COVID-19 racial discrimination on Chinese Americans, she’s looked into the psychological distress suffered by healthcare workers, and she has examined the psychological plight of essential workers.